About Me

I serve as Senior Pastor of Church of the Palms in Sarasota, Florida. I received my Doctor of Letters from the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University. Author of "Take Me to Aslan: C.S. Lewis and the Art of Trusting" and "When the Wind is Against You: Encouragement for When Life Pushes Back" available at Amazom and Kindle.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

One of the great disappointments in the recent cinematic retelling of Voyage of the Dawn Treader is how the producers, writers and directors managed to miss the whole point of Eustace's person-to-dragon-to-person transformation. In Lewis' story it is one of the great images of personal and spiritual transformation. Eustace turns into a dragon because as a boy he is pretty much of a dragon. No one wants to be with him. He breaths fire. But it is through his encounter with Aslan that he is given the chance to become truly human. To do so, however, he must be willing to be stripped. He must shed his dragon skin layer by layer. He tries it himself but he can only do it so far. Aslan must take it from there. The great lion digs his claws into him and strips him to as "smooth and soft as a peeled switch". The stripping is unbearably painful. And then Aslan throws him into the water and the immersion really smarts. But soon the pain starts to go away and he realizes that he has become a boy. He is a new creation. We get none of this in the movie. In the movie the dragon Eustace on his own becomes a hero. He puts himself to good use and helps to save the imperiled ship and crew. It's only after becoming mortally wounded that Aslan rewards him by roaring him back to himself. No stripping. No clawing. No waters of baptism. Just a quick roar and he's done.I wonder if our passing into the New Year comes with the hope that things will change for us like they do in Hollywood. A quick roar, a little special effects and presto ... it's all different. The New Testament doesn't suggest it works that way. Aslan wants to change us layer by layer until he gets to the bottom of our "dragonness". And then only through the waters of baptism can we claim our true identity -- child of God. New Year's Day can be the beginning of all that. A time to reclaim our baptism and to put ourselves into the hands of the One who wishes to change us, layer by layer. Will it hurt? Of course. But if losing our dragonness is the result, it might be worth it. A good resolution to make and to keep.Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Such was the news about Narnia when the Pevensie children entered through the wardrobe: Always winter, never Christmas. Narnia was in the grip of the White Witch who had no hope to offer. Never will the trees bloom. Never will the snow go away. Christmas though presents us with that stab of joy to remind us that reality is not as it appears to be. Our longings for a different story find their echo in the angels song, "... and on earth, peace among those whom he favors." The truth is not in the wars and the hurts and the hungers, the truth is in the one who promises more and seeks to lead us to it. It may still feel like winter, but with Christmas we know there is more to the story. And a little child shall take us there.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Maybe the best few pages one could read on the incarnation are found in the chapter The Grand Miracle in Lewis' book, Miracles. Lewis concludes his discussion with this:

The doctrine of the Incarnation work into our minds quite differently. It digs beneath the surface, works through the rest of our knowledge by unexpected channels, harmonises best with our deepest apprehensions and our 'second thoughts', and in union with these undermines our superficial opinions. It has little to say to the man who is still certain that everything is going to the dogs, or that everything is getting better and better, or that everything is God, or that everything is electricity ... (the Incarnation) illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge that it is somehow good to die, and which at one stoke covers what multitudes of separate theories will hardly cover for us if this is rejected. There is no real explanation that can be given to why we are so drawn to these nativity stories. Matthew and Luke tell such different tales, yet they become for us facets of a diamond that illumines a deeper truth that we'll never get our hands completely around. If we could, it wouldn't be so deep and it wouldn't be so true. We can only tell the story and let it do to us what God wishes.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

It's only been about eleven months since I've posted here. Somehow the world kept turning. In Matthew's account of the story of Jesus' birth did you ever notice that none of the earthly characters speak? They just do. Joseph gets news and resolves without a word to dismiss her quietly. He dreams of an angel telling him to take Mary as his wife and he resolves without a word to do so. Maybe Joseph could hear the angel because he wasn't talking (or blogging, for that matter). Whether Christmas is "merry" for folks will likely depend less on us saying the word than in performing the deed, whatever that may be. The world will keep turning the same way without our words, but maybe it might turn differently with our actions. Peace.